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EXERCISES 



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hull 



ERECTED IN THE 



College of tl\e City of ^^qw York, 



BY THE ALUMNI. 



TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE OF THEIR NUMBER WHO FELL IN 

THE SERVICE OF THEIR COUNTRY DURING 

THE LATE CIVIL WAR. 



R. C. ROOT, ANTHONY & CO. 

62 LiiucRi-v SriuciiT. 



I 875. 



In pursuance of a resolution passed by the Alumni 
of the College of the City of New York at the annual 
meeting in June, 1872, a committee of three, consisting 
of Messrs. Edwin M. Cox, George Sparrow and J. 
Seaver Page, was appointed to receive subscriptions, 
select a design and erect a mural tablet to the memory 
of those of the Alumni who perished in the war for the 
Union. The design of Mr. James S. Wightman was 
selected, and the work pushed with such energy that the 
tablet itself was completed in June, 1873. 



4 

On the 28th of that month, it was un vailed before an 
audience which thronged the hall and the staircases. 

Mr. Edwin M. Cox, Vice-President of the Alumni, 
opened the exercises by introducing the designer of 
the tablet, Mr. James S. Wightman. 

Mr. Wightman explained briefly the architectural 
decorations and the alleg'orical devices of the monu- 
ment. 

Mr. Frede-ric J. de Peyster, Historian of the Alumni, 
was then introduced and spoke as follows : 

" My friends, — We stand here in reverence before 
the marble which bears the names of those brave men 
who went forth from their books to lay clown their 
fresh young lives for us, for their country and their God. 
I feel how poor and weak words are to express the 
emotions that strues'le for utterance on an occasion like 
this, but it is my privilege as well as my duty to speak 
a few words of our gallant dead, and no matter how 
poor the offering, it is at least made in a spirit of sincere 
admiration and gratitude. Six of the seven whose 
names are on this tablet I had the honor of knowing ; 
most of them intimately ; Edzvard K. Wiglitman alone 
I did not know, except by reputation. But in his 
case even a knowledge so imperfect is sufficient to 
awaken the warmest admiration. A writer of distinction 
on the staff of one of the most respectable journals 
of this city, he sacrificed his prospect of speedy success 
to join the standard of the 9th New York Volunteers. 



5 

In the army he served faithfully in not less than fifteen 
engagements — for in an engagement he was never ab- 
sent from the ranks ; and at last, on the i5th of January^ 
1 865, in the successful assault on Fort Fisher, the fifth 
man to enter the fortress, he fell, bravely fighting, 
sword in hand. A o-allant soldier ! He had the trood 
fortune to meet a soldier's death. 

" Far different, though not less noble, was the fate of 
yames Lyman Van Buren. One of the most graceful 
and finished gentlemen I have ever had the good for- 
tune to meet. He entered the service, with chivalrous 
enthusiasm, as a second lieutenant of zouaves. Ac 
companying General Burnside's expedition to North 
Carolina, he was soon transferred to the Signal Service, 
in accordance with an order requiring that a certain 
number of the most intelligent officers should be de- 
tached for that purpose. While thus attached as signal 
ofificer to General Foster's staff, he distinofuished himself 
at the battles of Roanoke Island and Newberne. Bre- 
veted major for gallant and meritorious conduct, he was 
soon after transferred to the staff of General Burnside. 

With that distinguished commander he remained 
through all the changes and chances of the fierce strug- 
gle in Virginia, and with him Major Van Buren went 
West, to be again breveted — this time lieutenant- 
colonel — for oallant and meritorious conduct during- the 
siege of Knoxville. Moving East again with the Ninth 
Army Corps, he bore his part bravely, not only through 
the campaigns in the Wilderness and on the south side 



of the James, but also in that final triumph, when, on 
April 2d, 1 865, Petersburg was stormed. The war was 
over in the East, and, honored with the brevets of 
colonel and brigadier general, he came home to die. 
Brave and chivalrous, he had risked his life on many a 
battle-field ; his clothes were often torn by bullets ; on 
one occasion a shot shattered his sword within its scab- 
bard : yet death after a lingering illness — not the death 
he had so often courted in the thick of battle — was his 
fate ; sadder, but not less glorious. 

" Franklin Butler Crosby was born in this city of New 
York on the 4th of February, 1841. Tall, strong and 
handsome, his mind was not less favored than his body ; 
he was, indeed, an admirable compound of intellect, 
good taste and manly courage. He had, what in these 
degenerate days is so rare, the ideal of classic complete- 
ness — ' the sound mind in a sound body.' Of such 
stuff was the second lieutenant who joined the 4th U. 
S. Artillery in August, 1861. Ability and good con- 
duct soon made him first lieutenant, and the promotion 
of his captain gave him command of the battery. On 
the 2d of May, 1863, that battery was hotly engaged at 
Chancellorsville ; during the night ; it was of the great- 
est service in repelling the famous attack of Stonewall 
Jackson. At half-past eight o'clock the next morning, 
Sunday, May 3d, a bullet from a sharpshooter, who had 
gained the right flank of the battery and singled out 
its young commander, pierced his breast. He fell. 
His own men tenderly and tearfully carried him a few 



rods to the rear. One loving message to the dear 
ones at home, and his brief but glorious career was 
ended. 

Of William Cullen Bryant Gray I have been able 
to learn but few particulars. Still, as a classmate, and 
during college years, a neighbor, as well as an intimate 
friend, I can do some slight justice to his great merit. 
With a body weak and sickly, he had all the spirit of an 
old Spartan ; a spirit that enabled him to do and to 
suffer in a way that seemed to stronger, but less high- 
spirited men, litde less than supernatural. Born with a 
love of letters, as a contributor to our literary journals 
he showed no small talent, while yet an undergraduate. 
But at the first note of danger, he threw aside his books, 
resigned all the literary pursuits he loved so well, to 
risk all for his imperiled country. A severe cold con- 
tracted while on duty, brought on an attack of pleuro- 
pneumonia. His delicate frame could ill resist such an 
assault. A brief period of suffering, and all was over. 
Amid the delirium of fever, he thought of nothing but 
his duty ; his only regret was that he could not meet 
death on the battle-field, and his last words were of his 
soldiers. 

Charles Clarence Tracy KeitJi, though descended from 
one of the best families in South Carolina, was an early, 
ardent lover of liberty ; and not of liberty for himself 
alone, but for all. To him the Constitution of the 
United States, as it stood before the war, was the 
bulwark of slavery. It was his ambition to become a 



lawyer. But when he learned that before entering the 
Bar, he must swear allegiance to that Constitution, his 
reverence for Liberty, his devotion to duty, conquered 
even the rosy-hued ambitions of early manhood, and 
he at once turned his back on the profession by which 
he could alone hope to realize the brilliant dreams of 
youth. To such a spirit the War was a Crusade. With 
all the ardor of his enthusiastic temperament, he threw 
himself into the ranks. Like Van Buren, he was soon 
transferred for his intelligence to the Signal Service. 
While on this duty, in North Carolina, he was thrown 
from his horse, his head struck a stone, damaging his 
brain so seriously that but little hope of either his mind 
or his life remained. In this wretched condition, I 
saw him. Conscious of the worst, and yet resigned ; 
manly, almost cheerful under the most dreadful affliction 
that can befall humanity — the knowledge of wrecked 
and fast decaying powers, old age in the hey-day of 
youth ; idiocy or death his only future. What fate 
could be sadder, what courage more heroic. 

Edward Francis Young was one of the most brilliant 
scholars that ever graced these halls. His reading was 
extensive, and his information so great, that it was a 
matter of curiosity with me to find out, not how much he 
knew, but whether there was anything he did not know. 
As a scholar, our Alma Mater may well mourn his loss. 
And so winning were his social qualities and kind heart, 
that while this oreneration of orraduates survives, he will 
never want sincere mourners. Althouoh a husband and 



a father, his ardent patriotism early forced him to vol- 
unteer. In the army, as here, his great mental powers 
were patent to all, and he soon reached in the Engineers 
— the most intellectual branch of the service — the high 
rank of Major. While stationed at a fort near Wash- 
ington, in the Autumn of 1863, he undertook one night 
a tour of inspection, his horse stumbled and fell upon 
the brave young soldier crushing him so fearfully, that 
death, usually so dreaded, was welcomed by him as 
a friend. Brave, but unfortunate, had he lived, his. 
genius, enthusiasm and courage would surely have 
raised him to eminence. Like Keith's was his end- — so 
sad, so disappointing, and yet so noble. 

Gilbert M. Elliott was born in Connecticut, in 1840. 
His career in this colleQ^^e needs no mention from me ; 
it was marked by more triumphs than ever fell to the 
lot [of any other student. Triumphs, too, that were all 
fairly earned — so fairly earned that no breath of envy 
ever disputed his right to any one of the many honors 
that each commencement rained down upon him. His 
brilliant success might well have tempted him to devote 
his life to study ; but the battle of Bull Run, instead of 
daunting, hred him, and he at once joined the i02d 
New York Volunteers. He brought to the discharge 
of his new duties the same energy and mental vigor 
that had so distinguished him here. After two years' 
faithful service in the East, for which he was rewarded; 
with the rank of Major, his battalion, forming part of 
General Hooker's Army, was sent to Chattanooga.. 



lO 

Elliott was now in command of his regiment ; and on 
the afternoon of the 24th of November, 1863, while 
gallantly leading the skirmish line up the steep slope of 
Look-Out Mountain, he fell pierced by a rifle ball ; a 
few words of encouragement to his soldiers, and as in- 
domitable a heart as ever throbbed, stopped for ever. 
It was but just that the Government should mark its 
appreciation of his distinguished services and heroic 
death, by bestowing on him the posthumous honors of 
Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel. 

Thus Van Buren and Gray died from illness, Keith 
and Young from accident ; while Wightman, Crosby 
and Elliott fell sword in hand in the wild tornado of 
battle. If the three last were more fortunate in the 
manner of their death, it must not tempt us to award 
more of glory to them. No ! All perished nobly in 
the same grand cause ; and while rejoicing in the good 
fortune that cjave death on the battle-field to three of 
our gallant brothers, we cannot but feel a still deeper 
sympathy for those as brave and true, who, equally de- 
sirous of a soldier's death, were yet doomed to waste 
slowly away on the bed of sickness. 

Peace to their ashes. Better and braver soldiers 
never fell in a cause more worthy. They died young, 
it is true. But remember the old Hellenic sentiment : 
"Those whom the gods love die early." They did, in- 
deed, die early, in the very dawn of life, before they 
had fairly tasted its joys and triumphs ; but also before 
its sorrows and disappointments had had time to 



II 



■overtake them. But though they died so young, their 
hves were not in vain. Length of days is in no ratio 
to performance. Performance is the only test. Judged 
by that test, what must be their meed. Surely we can 
never honor them too much ; it will be hard to do them 
even a shadow of justice. 

It is but a few years since all hearts were on fire in 
the great struggle. Then it seemed as if we could 
never forget one of the true hearts who gave up all for 
us, for country and for God. The importance of the 
contest even the heat of battle did not exaggerate — 
because it could not be exaggerated. As long as there 
are men on this planet whose hearts are warmed by the 
sacred love of libert)- the memory of this conflict will be 
held sacred. It will live as a far greater, and not less 
heroic struggle than that which Holland waged for 80 
years against Spain ; than that which Switzerland 
waged against Austria ; than that which Greece waged 
against Persia. Homely as they sound in our ears 
now, I believe the day will yet come when the names 
of our battles shall have all the halo of glory that now 
surrounds the magic names of Marathon and Ther- 
mopylae. The grand results are indeed immortal, but 
the brave young men by whom they were achieved 
are less likely to be remembered as time goes on, and 
their friends drop one by one into the grave. It was to 
resist this tendency that Athens piled the mound at 
Marathon, and sculptured those matchless marbles that 
have been the admiration and despair of twenty-three 

LofC. 



12 



centuries. It was for this that Rome reared her tri- 
umphal arches, and that the Great Napoleon, in imita- 
tion of classic times, built his Arch of Triumph, 
Animated by the same sentiment, we erect this 
tablet. Our memorial is comparatively humble, but it 
commemorates men as gallant as any France or Italy, 
or even Hellas could boast. We put up this marble to 
tell coming generations of the mingled admiration and 
gratitude we feel for the noble dead, and to teach the 
living, by their example, lessons of courage, self-sacrifice 
and patriotism. Here we have placed it. And here let 
it rest forever — a memory of our heroes gone, an 
inspiration to the living. 



The President of the Alumni, General H. E. Tre- 
main, then committed the memorial as a sacred trust to 
the keeping of the Faculty. 

General Alexander S. Webb, President of the 
College of the City of New York responded, by ac- 
cepting on behalf of the Faculty the care and main- 
tenance of the monument. 







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